11 LGBTQ Stories to Celebrate Pride Month

Sam Lansky’s memoir paints a dark and enthralling tale of one journey to self-acceptance with a modern-day New York City private school backdrop. You’ll cringe, you’ll laugh, you’ll gasp, and finally you’ll applaud this young man as he finds his way in this world as an openly proud gay man.

While every piece in this collection covers the fascinating experiences of women who lived just outside the spotlight, the second story, “The Siege at Whale Cay,” contains the collection’s most interesting LGBTQ character. A cross-dressing motorboat enthusiast and heiress, Joe Carstairs resides on her own private island, where she seduces women, including Marlene Dietrich.

Not your average dog book. Take a wild and emotional adventure with Lily and her owner Ted as they navigate their way through the act of saying goodbye. In a completely engrossing and wonderfully creative way, LILY AND THE OCTOPUS is part fairy tale, part portrait of grief. If you don’t shed a tear by the last page, then you can rest easy that you are a monster.

Read the full review of LILY AND THE OCTOPUS

A powerful collection of essays from women who discovered their love for other women after years of being in relationships with men. DEAR JOHN, I LOVE JANE is perfect for those questioning their sexuality at any age—one of the contributors was in her sixties when she came out!—for those who have “always known,” and for anyone hoping to learn more about sexual fluidity.

You may recognize Charles Blow from his many Opinion Pages in the New York Times, but he first captivated us with his incredibly honest and deeply felt struggle coming to terms as a bi-sexual man. He weaves a story of a tough childhood to frat houses to his life now as a journalist with grace, poise, and incredible skill.

A delicious memoir that explores both sexuality and the kitchen. Through food, Candace Walsh tells her story, from her unhappy adolescence to her marriage to a man to becoming a divorcée in a same-sex relationship, with a few recipes thrown in for good measure.

In this darkly humored tale of a family preparing for a wedding, Grant Ginder explores everything from immersion therapy to pill addiction to threesomes. It will have you cackling long after the celebration is over. We predict you'll be passing this novel around the pool to all your friends.

In this harrowing story Thomas Page McBee reflects on what it means to “be a man” from the perspective of one who has successfully transitioned from female to male. Focusing on the two traumatic events in his life—growing up with an abusive father and a random mugging—he explores manhood in a way that will leave you breathless. The under-published world of the trans male is lucky to have McBee on this planet.

When Isabel Miller first self-published this novel in 1969, it was groundbreaking and would ultimately win the first American Library Association Gay Book Award in 1971. PATIENCE & SARAH follows what was still a fairly taboo subject at the time: the growing love and relationship between two strong women in a New England farming community.

When one boy is trapped in small-town life, he discovers the only way to deal with it is to throw glitter all over it. Rachel Flood has returned home to make amends with her mother, only to find that no one in the town will even look at her except for the outcasts. What follows is part A League of Their Own, part To Wong Foo. This book will have you saying “Yas Qween” time and time again.

When Maria Griffiths, a trans woman living in Brooklyn, is dumped by her girlfriend, she sets out on an impromptu trip to the Pacific. Along the way, she meets James, who is denying his own dysphoria. NEVADA is a poignant picture of what it means to be trans, both from Maria’s point of view as she faces the ruins of her life and through James’s story as he explores his gender identity.